A mobile phone is something we take for granted these days, but only a relatively short period of time ago, they were only owned by a select few, with the majority of folks being relegated to using phones that were home landlines or pay telephones. One might think that even though there is a mobile phone in the hand of just about everyone walking around, pay phones would not be necessary. Well, apparently someone did think of that, and now, good luck trying to find one. Chances are, if you do, it will be missing critical components to make it work. At one time, pay phones were located just about everywhere, with one or two at every quick mart or gas station. Well, somebody had the brilliant idea that they weren’t needed anymore. Where this thinking went wrong was in the fact that occasionally, cell phone reception is horrible, OR your battery life expires and if you have no car charger, then you need to be able to use a pay phone.

Maybe it would be a good idea, since it’s highly unlikely that pay phones will ever make a comeback, that there could be stations where you could plug in your mobile phone to use a nearby antenna for better reception, and it would give you power for the duration of the call. You would at least be able to use the phone for emergency purposes and the likes. The way it would work would be that you would have to place a card (credit or debit) into the machine, whereby it would then open, giving you access to the cords that would have one which works with your phone…and to prevent theft, the machine would automatically detect foul play, at which point it would charge your card (to prevent theft and damage.)

Another invention that would be a great boon to mobile phone usage would be to have mobile phone vending machines, that would dispense everything from the very basic prepaid mobile phones to energy banks, car charger cords, and other incidentals one might need while traveling. These machines would stand in line with the drink and snack vending machines. Sure, there might be some detractors like the possibility for theft, but a little creative thought and planning could be implemented to dissuade that.

Until that time comes, we must take care to remember to recharge our phones and keep them charged up, ready to go…especially when we are on the road. It’s really difficult to imagine how we ever did without them, until about 25 years ago…